Chapter 4: Falldown
While Love Heart kept up his magical training he also kept training with his practice sword, and he really showed a talent with both. His magical training got a lot easier once the green bear turned 13, and Sage Heart took time out of the training to teach Love Heart some of the facts of life, which also included the fact that magical energy increased more rapidly at the same time that his body was growing more rapidly. Love Heart kept training as hard as he could because he wanted to show how good he was getting both sword fighting and with his electrical magic.
However inevitably during the winter, as had happened every year, Love Heart found himself sleeping a lot during the winter even now that he was 15 years old as living in a cave and being a bear meant he often felt like hibernating during the winter months. Love Heart had hibernated completely until he was three, after which Sage Heart began to keep waking him up at regular intervals both to keep up his training as if he was ever to join the rest of the world. Love Heart could not sleep for an entire season, but despite this he still slept for inordinately long periods of time, usually no more than two days in a row but sometimes as much as a week if he was really tired, but this was because there was so little to do. Sure he still trained both in sword fighting and magic but it was cold and that meant he got tired more quickly and had to rest or even sleep more, especially since the sword training was exhausting him much more rapidly than his magic training was these days.
It was during his 15th winter raising Love Heart, that Sage Heart decided to undertake some important projects. Love Heart was sleeping just as much as the previous year which gave his dad more free time, which he put to good use.
One night, Love Heart was awakened by a series of loud metallic bangs from another part of the cave that Sage Heart had added that autumn; he could see a red glow coming from down the cavern. Shivering from the cold, Love Heart just pulled himself further into the heavy down sleeping bag he had been using every winter in order to muffle the sound. He wanted to check what his dad was working on but every time he had asked while he was awake, Sage Heart just said it was a surprise, and besides, he was too tired to want to get up and investigate.
Eventually, winter came to an end, and Love Heart ended his periods of extended sleep. Despite winter having ended, Sage Heart was still occupied a lot of the time and so he encouraged Love Heart to spend time in the nearby town on his own, often giving him a day’s worth of spending money and letting him spend the day alone, encouraging him to get to know the townspeople on his own. Sage Heart still found time to train Love Heart but Love Heart was rapidly surpassing Sage Heart in the field of swordplay and has learned pretty much everything that could be taught for his element of magic, as more real world experience would be needed for him to learn more.
Sage Heart woke Love Heart up early on the day of what they had agreed years ago was his 16th birthday, which was just the day that his dad had found him 16 years ago. Love Heart was still tired but yawned, stretched, and got up.
“Good morning, son,” Sage Heart said, “and Happy Birthday, here I have a present for you.”
“Really?” Love Heart yawned again then asked, “What is it?”
“Here,” Sage Heart reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a long nail file in a plastic sheath which he tossed to his son. Love Heart caught it and then stared at the nail file in confusion. He pulled it out, the nail file was well made and had a small hole at the bottom where a thin length of cord was strung to let him tied it to his belt, or wrist if he wanted.
“Umm thanks,” Love Heart said, not sure what to make of this.
Sage Heart chuckled and pointed to the file, “Hold it in your hand and charge it with mana, like I showed you.”
Love Heart nodded and did so, finding that charging the nail file with mana was quite easy. Suddenly the file sprung out, growing into a long and wide sword which almost overbalanced him. Love Heart was in awe, “wow,” was all he said, taking a few practice swings and finding the sword fit him very nicely.
Sage Heart smiled at his son and explained, “That is a special sword I made for you, I spent all of winter forging it then using magic in order to give it that special ability to disguise itself as a nail file. You may need a weapon in the future to fight and defend yourself but these days people do not want you to walk around carrying a weapon out in the open.”
Love Heart held his sword out and tried several more complex attack forms, attacking a couple trees nearby and getting used to the feel of the metal sword. Sage Heart watched, smiling and began to explain, “That sword won’t cut through anything that a steel sword can’t, but thanks to the magic I’ve used on it, that sword is indestructible and only your man a will be able to extend it from it’s normal form. If you want to store it just pull your mana out of it, the sword won’t ever retract on its own.”
Love Heart collapsed the sword and put the nail file in his pocket before going to hug his father, “Thanks dad.”
“Happy Birthday, Love Heart,” Sage Heart said, hugging his son back, “Now, let’s go into town and celebrate.”
“Alright, race ya!” Love Heart Bear was suddenly full of energy and took off towards the town. Sage Heart took off running after his son, not using magic but just enjoying the time they had to spend in this place, they wouldn’t be there much longer.
***
A couple months later, Love Heart was woken up roughly early in the morning when his father shook him awake. He rubbed his eyes and blinked, “Dad, what? Why are you waking me up this early?”
“Because we have things to do,” Sage Heart said, “we’re leaving today.”
That got Love Heart awake, pulling out of his sleeping bag, “Leaving, to where?”
“To find others like us,” Sage Heart said, “I’ve always believed we weren’t the only one like ourselves in the world, but I felt I had to raise you properly rather than spending too find others and be unable to give anyone the attention they needed. Now that you’ve pretty much completed all the training I can give you I think it’s time that you saw more of the world and that we did it together.” Sage Heart smiled, “Now let’s go to the river to wash up, we need to go into town to get a few more supplies before we set out.”
Love Heart was understandably reluctant to leave, he’d spent all of his life here and now they were going to move on. He mused on this as he washed up in the river near their home, he’d miss the town and all the townsfolk he’d grown up knowing, even the few fleeting friends he’d known at one point or another, but Sage Heart was right, he couldn’t just live in the cave forever, and now that he was both a skilled swordsman and a powerful lightning mage, he had to move on, maybe even learn other magical elements as he did so.
Sage Heart was washing up nearby as well and he could see how disappointed Love Heart looked. He waded over to his son and placed a hand on his shoulder, “I know it’s hard to leave your childhood home, but we have more that we can do than just sitting around. It took me over 90 years to find my purpose in life, which was raising you, wouldn’t you rather find a greater purpose in your life sooner than I did?”
Love Heart rolled his eyes, Sage Heart had told him about his life before being a “Care Bear”, how he was a human named Koran Terada and how he had basically wasted his life looking for a purpose. “Yeah I know, dad, and yeah I guess I would like to find something to do with my life now,” Love Heart admitted.
“Good for you! And I know I’ve said this before, but you’ve learned magic to this level faster than anyone else I’ve ever known. You’re about three years ahead of even the most practiced mages I knew when I was growing up,” Sage Heart patted his son’s back proudly.
“Thanks dad,” Love Heart turned and hugged Sage Heart.
“You’re welcome, son, now let’s dry off, get dressed, and get the last of our supplies so we can get going.”
Love Heart had more of a spring in his step as they headed for town, and that made Sage Heart extremely happy to see that his son was taking this so well. This time tomorrow they would be on the road and looking for others that he could hopefully train them just as well as his son.
When the two bears got to the town, they found it unsettlingly quiet, sure it was early morning but this was about the time that the stores were opening, people were getting up for school or opening their places of business. As they headed deeper into town they saw that the stores looked abandoned, as though they had been opened the just left open in a hurry. Love Heart pulled out his sword in its nail file form, feeling unsettled.
“This just feels wrong, dad, something isn’t right here.”
“I know, Love Heart, but don’t draw your sword just yet,” Sage Heart said, placing a hand on his son’s shoulder to forestall him from extending the sword, “I told the people in the town that we were going to leave so they might just be planning a farewell.” Sage Heart’s tone suggested that he wasn’t really convinced of what he said, but was trying to keep them calm.
At that moment, they heard a loud scream of terror from the center of town. Both bears reacted instinctively, dashing as fast as they could towards the sound of the screams. The sight that greeted them was horrifying.
A man was holding a young woman off the ground by her neck with his left hand. The man had a dusky complexion with short white hair; he was wearing black plate mail armor complete with gauntlets and greaves with dull nubs around the shoulders, waist, and down the sides of the legs with a black cap fastened at his shoulders, but there was no helmet in evidence.
“Ahh, the last one, that’s right scream, your family and friends are all gone and soon you will be joining them,” the man said in a deep and sinister voice, grinning with great reverence for what he had planned. Love Heart and Sage Heart were too shocked to move when the man raised his right hand, but instead of killing her he began to move his hand as if coaxing something out. The bears watched in horror as a colorful substance flowed out of the woman’s mouth and towards the man. He opened his mouth and began to admit the substance, which turned black as it entered his mouth and he seemed to draw strength from it.
Then he dropped the woman, and she lay very still, then the man turned to face Love Heart and Sage Heart, grinning sadistically, “I saw you two arrive, did you like the show?” he asked.
Love Heart’s hand shot to his pocket, pulling out his nail file and charging it with mana, turning it into its sword form, shouting, “What did you do to the town?!”
“The same thing that I just did to this woman, watch,” he pointed to the woman. She twitched and suddenly her skin turned pitch black. The woman stood up and they saw that her mouth was now full of razor sharp teeth and her eyes were blood red. A hole had formed in her chest and her entire body was black and her hands and feet had sharp claws. The monster let out a roar, sounding like the cry of a long tortured creature before taking off into the wilderness.
“What was that thing?” Sage Heart asked, mentally preparing his magic to attack at any moment.
“A blank being, a creation of my own,” the man explained, “allow me to introduce myself, my name is Dusk Heart, and what I just did was drain that woman of her emotions. I can draw power from the energy that emotions give off, and I just took the emotions of this entire town. They’re all out in the wilderness as blank beings, creatures without emotions and driven only by instincts. I’m sure they’ll cause havoc for years to come until they’re all dead.”
“You monster!” Love Heart shouted, charging at Dusk Heart, his sword raised. Dusk Heart moved in flash, drawing his own sword that neither bear had noticed until that moment, and swinging at Love Heart. Thankfully, Love Heart swung at the exact same time and instead of being cut in half, his sword absorbed the blow, not breaking thanks to Sage Heart’s enchantment but the force of the blow combined with Love Heart’s speed set the bear flying sideways into an empty display stand. Dusk Heart was about to turn and finish off the young bear, but was suddenly struck by a magically enhanced punch from Sage Heart, knocking him back several feet and onto his back.
Sage Heart stood, his hand enhanced with strength magic and conjuring a flame in his other hand. He spoke powerfully and deliberately, “You will not lay a hand on my son!”
Dusk Heart picked himself up and retrieved his sword, chuckling, “I was hoping to leave you for the end, so I could take everything from you and then kill you when all your hopes and dreams were dead, but since you’re so eager to die, I’ll finish you off now.”
“You are a sick man, Dusk Heart, and I will end your terror right here!” Sage Heart shot out his hand and released a massive fireball, not caring for the state of the town with no one alive in it. Dusk Heart took the blast head on, it burned but he didn’t appear all that injured, he just smirked and threw out a large tendril of some black substance that wrapped around Sage Heart’s arm.
“What is this, dark magic?!” he said, struggling against it.
“Hardly, that is dark matter, the true source of my power, and what will end you right here and now!” Dusk Heart declared, shooting out more of the dark matter to try and suffocate Sage Heart.
Sage Heart concentrated, and let loose a powerful blast of light magic, countering the dark matter. Much to Dusk Heart’s surprise, the blast then flew at and hit him and, completely unprepared for the savagery of the counterattack, was blown a long distance and out of town.
Sage Heart took the moment to dash over to where Love Heart lay, dazed, and helped him sit up, “Love Heart, my son, are you alright?” he asked, greatly concerned.
“A little banged up but otherwise OK dad,” Love Heart searched the debris and pulled out his sword, “Now let’s go finish that Dusk Heart guy off!” Love Heart stood up but stumbled, still a bit dazed from the attack that had knocked him this far, and fell to a sitting position.
“No, Love Heart, you stay here, you’re still hurt. Withdraw your mana from the sword, it will help you regain your bearings, even that small amount, and wait here. Follow when you’re able to run on your own,” Sage Heart turned and took three steps, then stopped, returned and hugged Love Heart tightly just as the green bear reverted his sword to its nail file form. “I love you, with all my heart, Love Heart Bear, be strong and live long.” Love Heart was stunned, shocked that his father was speaking as though this was the last time, but hugged him back.
“I will dad, I will,” was all he said. Sage Heart released his hold on his son, wiped a tear from his eye, and took off, heading to where he had blasted Dusk Heart, and hoping that Love Heart would recover soon. Love Heart just sat there, breathing and trying to get his strength back as soon as he could so he could go and help his father defeat this monster who had destroyed the town.
Dusk Heart crashed down near the waterfall and stood up, battered but not badly injured. “That old bear has some fight in him. Too bad it won’t be enough to save him and his little son.” Dusk Heart searched around, found and retrieved his sword, then held it up, grinning. He turned at the sound of someone running towards him and turned to face him, “Well, Sage Heart, I was expecting you.”
“I told you before. You will not touch my son!” Sage Heart punctuated his last statement with a blast of Fire and Lightning. Dusk Heart was hit hard, and sent back several feet, but then dashed forwards, striking Sage Heart hard with his sword. Sage Heart dodged but his arm was cut badly. Sage Heart retaliated with a blast of light, but Dusk Heart just dodged and retaliated with several blades of dark matter, lacerating Sage Heart badly. Dusk Heart stepped forwards to deliver a killing blow, but Sage Heart used a magically enhanced jump to avoid the strike and fired a massive barrage of ice blades down at Dusk Heart. The man was cut and felt the icy blasts strike his head turning with a vengeance to the bear and charging, sword point towards him.
Three things happened at once, Love Heart appeared, having regained his breath and ready to fight, Sage Heart rounded on Dusk Heart, and Dusk Heart plunged his sword into Sage Heart’s chest. Love Heart shouted, Sage Heart gasped painfully, and Dusk Heart snickered as he withdrew his sword from the bear’s chest, leaving him stumbling in pain.
“Too bad, I was trying to run you through the heart and kill you instantly, but you turned so you just have a painful hole in your chest,” Dusk Heart lamented.
Sage Heart dropped to his knees, his hand over the bleeding hole in his chest, “D-damn you!” he managed to grunt out.
“Oh well,” Dusk Heart stepped towards the bear, clearly in pain and badly injured himself, “Guess I will just have you kill your son after you, good bye old bear!” With that last word, he delivered a kick to Sage Heart’s chest, sending him flying over the waterfall and plunging down.
Love Heart, who had been watching in horror until that point, dashed forwards vainly hoping he could save his father. Dusk Heart just stepped aside, relishing the pain that Love Heart was feeling. Love Heart tripped and fell, looking over the side of the cliff just in time to see Sage Heart vanish behind the spray from the water’s impact.
“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!” he shouted, tears streaming down his face as he watched the old bear who had raised him, cared for him, and taught him everything he knew vanish before his eyes beneath the roaring currents of the waterfall.
Dusk Heart laughed at his victory, watching the despair creep through Love Heart as the bear lifted to his knees, crying.
Dusk Heart walked over to Love Heart and raised his sword, “I had hoped to do this to your father, but suffering is suffering, and now that everything in your young life has been taken away, I will dispose of you.” Love Heart narrowed his eyes and reached into his pocket. Dusk Heart swung down, but was surprised when Love Heart’s sword flew up to block the blow.
Love Heart’s face was twisted in anger and sorrow as hot tears rolled down his face. He stood up, actually forcing Dusk Heart back a few steps as he spoke in a voice full of anger, hate, and loss. “You’ve taken everything from me! My father! My friends! All the people I ever knew or cared about are gone because of you!” Dusk Heart was about to retort snarkily when Love Heart pushed him back so there were a couple meters separated them now as he continued his tirade, “You’ve destroyed my life and now I’m going to make you pay!” Love Heart’s sword suddenly was charged with electricity as he charged, striking Dusk Heart as hard as he could, and shocking him badly. Dusk Heart was about to retaliate but was met with a furious array of powerful electrically charged assaults from Love Heart.
Under normal circumstances Dusk Heart would have been able to fend off this assault and even retaliate, but not only was the assault he was under fueled by anger and magic he didn’t think could exist in such a young person, he was still badly injured from his battle with Sage Heart and he couldn’t fight back as well as he normally could have. Dusk Heart tried to use his dark matter against Love Heart several times, but the young bear just attacked and repelled the dark matter with blasts of lightning or blows form his electrically charged sword.
Eventually, Dusk Heart decided to retreat. He jumped backwards, letting Love Heart stand, panting from exertion as he readied another assault.
“You got lucky today, Love Heart,” Dusk Heart said, on his knee in pain and exhaustion, “If you dad hadn’t worn me down I would have killed you by now. I will be back to kill you some day, but for now I will leave you to your despair.” The dark matter began to surround him.
“NO! You won’t get away!” Love Heart began to charge up a powerful blast of lightning. He let the blast fly at Dusk Heart, but the man vanished in his dark matter orb, which flew away at high speed, letting the blast of lightning create a scar where he had been standing a moment ago.
“NO!” Love Heart shouted, “Noooo!” Love Heart dropped his sword and pounded the ground, crying in despair that he had failed to avenge his father. Getting up, he collapsed his sword and dashed to the cliff. Taking a deep breath he began to climb down the rock wall next to the waterfall, remembering what his father had taught him about rock climbing on his eighth birthday.
Love Heart reached the bottom and began to search frantically for any sign of Sage Heart, hoping desperately that his father had grabbed onto something or been caught on some rocks and was nearby, waiting for Love Heart to rescue him. After over an hour of searching, Love Heart dropped to his knees. His dad, Sage Heart, was gone, whether he had survived the fall or not the rapid currents would have swept his body far downstream by now, and it would be impossible to find him. Love Heart lay down and cried.
Love Heart wasn’t sure how long he lay there, or even if he had fallen asleep, but he was shocked back to awareness by growling sounds from the forest. Love Heart wiped his eyes and looked around, red eyed, sharp teeth and claws. He saw them, blank beings. He saw them surrounding him, looking at him hungrily; he even recognized some of the silhouettes as people he’d known from the town. Love Heart pulled out his nail file and charged it while still in its pocket, it extended into its sword form and the small pocket changed into the scabbard.
“So it’s come to this,” he said, “first I lose the townspeople I grew up with, then my dad is killed and now,” he drew his sword and pushed the scabbard through his belt, “I have to destroy what’s left of them.” He held his sword in both hands and lifted its point up towards the nearest one, “Very well, I release you from your tortured prison!” he shouted, charging at nearest blank being and slicing it in half with a single swing, its body dissolving as it let out a gasping death cry. The other blank being did not show any reaction to this and attacked, and Love Heart retaliated.
For hours, Love Heart Bear slew the blank beings as they came at him with sword swings and electrical attacks as they kept coming. Love Heart tried to count how many he had to destroy and eventually lost track. He just kept swinging and zapping, and even crying as he recognized some of the forms of the blank beings as people he’d considered as friends, but he knew they were lost and destroyed the blank beings they had become.
Eventually they were all gone; the blank beings were all gone. Love Heart stood panting and injured in several places from the sharp teeth and claws of the blank beings. Love Heart looked around, there was nothing but eerie silence, the bodies of the blank beings had dissolved when he slew them and now there was nothing to hear or see, the animals having all been scared away by the fight that had begun in the town several hours ago.
Eventually, Love Heart sheathed his sword, withdrew the mana from his sword and stowed the nail file in his pocket then sighed then began to climb up the cliff next to the waterfall. He reached the top and hauled himself up, panting, and then he saw something shining near the water. Curiously he walked over and picked up. It was a gold necklace with a quarter-sized heart shaped locket at the bottom, curiously, he opened it. One half was empty but the other half had a picture of Love Heart and Sage Heart they had gotten taken of them on his last birthday just a couple of months ago. The locket must have come off when Dusk Heart kicked him over the falls. Love Heart sighed brokenly and hooked the locket around his neck, tucking it into his shirt, then turned and walked back to the town.
Love Heart walked the empty streets, checking some of his favorite stores and restaurants, noticing that there were signs of Dusk Heart’s attacks in the stores, smashed up tables, chairs, food scattered everywhere in the restaurants, most of which were no long functioning, their wiring having been cut and all their machines no longer working. Love Heart found his favorite fast food joint still intact and, despite the fact that he had never worked in the place before, got behind the counter and, after reading a couple of the instruction manuals, managed to make himself a burger, fries, and a vanilla shake, then shut off all the deep fryers, grilling trays, warming drawers, and everything else before leaving to eat the food on the road. It actually tasted good, better than it ever had before, at least he knew how to cook.
By the time he finished the food and drink, he had arrived at the arcade, which was amazingly still standing. He walked to the counter, got behind it and grabbed a handful of tokens. He walked around, stopping briefly to play each of his favorite games once; he even tried a few of the games he never liked or ones he had never tried before. Eventually he ran out of tokens and sighed, looking at the machines he used to enjoy playing while growing up. Then walked over to the fuse box and shut off all the power to the arcade.
Love Heart continued to walk down the roads, stopping to look in the shops he frequented and even ones he’d never really been into before. He stopped at the grocery store and took some extra supplies, as he suspected that that was what he needed to get for the journey.
Finally the sun was setting in the west and Love Heart left to return to his home. He made a small grave for his father outside the cave, making a simple headboard that read “Sage Heart, A father like no other”
Love Heart returned inside his home and lay down, starting to cry. He cried for what seemed like hours before he finally cried himself to sleep.
